Credit: DisneyFrom Mickey Ears to trading pins, there are certain pieces of Disney merch that any seasoned Park Hopper can easily identify. While some pieces of Disney Parks merch are tastefully and wonderfully designed, more than a few pieces come off as obnoxious and can get in the way of the Disney magic.
Many guests, particularly the younger ones, seem to favor any piece of merch with flashing lights, loud noises, and other features that draw attention, but one thing no guest can escape when trekking through the Magic Kingdom is the overabundance of bubble wands. Walking through a wall of suds might be fun the first few times, but many start singing a different tune when they’ve had to blow bubbles off their corndog nuggets for the fourth time in one sitting.
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Admittedly, that might sound like the gripes of a stick-in-the-mud Disney guest, but multiple park-goers from both the California and Florida parks can agree that bubble wands and blowers can be an annoyance. However, if the footage below is true, the simple wands with bulbous Mickey ears might soon be the least of their troubles.
Bubble Trouble Hits Disney Parks
@disneyparks Is it dramatic to say this bubble blower changed our lives? 👀✨#Disney #DisneyParks #Disneyland #MickeysToontown #BubbleBlower #Bubbles #Mickey
As fun as it is to see the official Disney Parks TikTok make a Skyrim reference, there are more than a few parents in the comments absolutely cringing at the sight of the new bubble machine from Mickey’s Toontown. Not only does this thing excrete a massive cloud of bubbles, but it also comes with a Bop-It-level amount of noises and features to accentuate its cartoonish design.
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There’s no doubt that kids will absolutely love it, but moms and dads who have to deal with the sudzy aftermath are already filled with dread. Furthermore this is an issue many fans have had with the parks for a long while, and Disney just gave it a massive upgrade.
What Fans Are Saying
There are certainly plenty of Disney fans and collectors that get joy out of this new merch drop, there are even more that see the negative consequences.
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Users like @Kaosmomma share their disdain for bubble machines with comments like,
I hate those stupid bubble machines. Every time I go to the parks it never fails I have a unattended kid shoving one in my face spraying the bubbles in my face laughing.
Of course, the discourse is even more vocal on platforms where commenters aren’t limited by character counts. Multiple fans on the Reddit forums share similar perspectives, and it’s not a new phenomenon.
u/nafrekal writes in their post on r/WaltDisneyWorld,
“They drive me crazy, and it drives me double crazy when parents let their kids use them in super dense crowds for the reasons you mentioned.
My kids always want them, and we made the mistake a couple times of buying them. The bubbles themselves run out pretty quickly, and they are made of cheap plastic and don’t hold up well. Plus they take up a lot of room in a suitcase and are kind of soapy and gross if you miss a spot washing them.”
On Disneyland’s subreddit, u/IndependenceLegal746 shares how much of annoyance they can be when they add,
“I had a kid blow them directly into my 6 month olds face while he screamed bloody murder. I had to ask their 6 year old to stop myself because his parents did not care. I wouldn’t mind them so much if parents actually remembered to watch their kids with them. If they’re aiming at someone’s face correct it. Or apologize when your child gets corrected because you weren’t paying attention.”
A few comments down, u/DocBrutus co-signs on the sentiment when they write,
“Those bubble wands are like a dog’s chew toy. They buy them for their kids to shut them up long enough for the parents to regain their sanity. It shuts the kid up, parents don’t kill each other, or the kid. Life goes on. The fun thing is, they run out of bubbles quickly.”
While it’s so incredibly easy to lump comments like these into gripes from other exhausted parents at the parks, the bubble wand drama hasn’t gone unnoticed by Disney’s side either. One cast member even went as far as to call them out as annoying.
Casey Clark, a former Disney Cast Member working in merchandising, gave Business Insider a list of souvenirs to absolutely avoid. When mentioning the bubble wands, Clark had this to say.
“I’m an adult, and the Disney bubble wands cost $30, so maybe I’m just biased against this purchase. But even from what I’ve witnessed with kids in the park, the toy really only keeps them distracted for a few hours until they see the next light-up wand they want. Plus, they can be super annoying for people around you at the parks (at least I think so). If a bubble wand is the one thing that saves your child from having their 10th temper tantrum of the day, go for it. But I’ll pass.”
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There’s no denying that there is undeniably a certain stigma from parents and grown-up guests. However, it’s safe to say that the new Toontown bubble makers will be a hot selling item at Disneyland, and it likely won’t be long until Walt Disney World sees something similar. Anything to make a buck, right?
Do you think the bubble blowers have gotten out of control? Tell Inside the Magic in the comments down below!